19 posts from June 2010

Jun 30, 2010

Every so often, Aalim Moody, 5, and his twin sister, Aalima, break into a kind of secret code, chatting in a language their father does not understand.

Walking along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, they make out the lettering on kosher food shops and yeshiva buses, showing off all they learn at the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Midwood, where they both attend kindergarten.

…

Aalim and Aalima are not Jewish. They worship at a mosque affiliated with the Nation of Islam. But at the Hebrew Language Academy, they fit right in.

NOT all groups that the United States government classifies as terrorist organizations are equally bad or dangerous, and not all information conveyed to them that is based on political, academic or scientific expertise risks harming our national security. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, which last week upheld a law banning the provision of “material support” to foreign terrorist groups, doesn’t seem to consider those facts relevant.

Here is how Shahzad explained his role in the holy war: “It’s a war,” he said. “I am part of that. I am part of the answer of the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people, and on behalf of that, I’m revenging the attacks.”

Now, for a Muslim holy warrior to see his attacks as revenge runs counter to Pipes’s longstanding claim that Islamic holy war is about attack, not counterattack. Roughly since 9/11, Pipes has been telling us that jihad is “unabashedly offensive in nature, with the eventual goal of achieving Muslim dominion over the entire globe.” This notion of “jihad in the sense of territorial expansion has always been a central aspect of Muslim life” and is now “the world’s foremost source of terrorism.” That’s why you have to respond with “superior military force.”

I also wanted the average South Asian to read this article and actually acknowledge that hey, gay desis do exist. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about our community, it’s that topics that are not socially acceptable are swept under the carpet, coined taboo, and spoken of in hushed tones. Well, not anymore. I realized after two weeks of drafting that the best way to do this was to be rid of inhibitions and write with simple honesty: Hi, my name is Kashif and I’m a Gay Indian/Pakistani/Sunni/Shiite/Punjabi/Muslim.

I grew up on the outskirts of Houston, Texas in one of the largest South Asian communities in the United States and am the son of strict, relatively conservative Muslim parents. My preteen years were spent in constant transit: school, weekday Quran study and Sunday school at the local Shiite mosque. If there were any points constantly being driven home by my parents, it was the importance of school, religion and image. Whenever taboo issue came up in our family, my parents would go into extreme damage control. They were like a PR powerhouse in the South Asian community, able to spin any story into general acceptance.

Jun 29, 2010

“Whoever says, ‘What good is the Imam? God without an intermediary is enough for me’ plainly forgets that, in speaking of this God who is immediate for him, he can never speak save of the God who reveals Himself to him, of God as he knows Him, in and through the form in which God reveals Himself to him. Even if he speaks of God as of something impersonal or transpersonal, he does so only of the form shown to him or withheld from him. Without this mazhar, without this ‘theophanic form’ in which God manifests Himself – in the widest sense of the term – it is impossible even to speak of God. This form is the “Face” of God, and several texts have already shown us the importance of this theme for Shi’ism. We have been told that this “Face of God” is the Imam.”

Corbin, Henry. “The Meaning of Imam for Shiʿi Spirituality.” In Shiʿism: Doctrines, Thought, and Spirituality, edited by Seyyed Hossein. Nasr, Hamid Dabashi, and Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, 167-187. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. at pg. 170

Jun 24, 2010

Welcome to Conflict Kitchen’s first iteration, Kubideh Kitchen. Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with. The food is served out of a take-out style storefront, which will rotate identities every 4 months to highlight another country. Each Conflict Kitchen iteration will be augmented by events, performances, and discussion about the the culture, politics, and issues at stake with each county we focus on.

Jun 23, 2010

On his website, Saleem claims to have carried out terror missions in Israel, fought with Afghan Mujahedeen against the Soviets, and came to the U.S. hoping to wage jihad against America. He also once claimed on the site that he was descended from the "grand wazir of Islam," until skeptics pointed out that it was a nonsensical term, akin to calling someone the "governor of Christianity."
Skeptics point out that Shoebat and Saleem claim to have carried out their terrorist activities in the 1960s and 1970s, long before modern Islamic radicalism emerged in the 1980s. They also question why, if their terror claims are true, they've been able to retain their U.S. citizenship.

Jun 22, 2010

I want to encourage you to participate in this important event NRCAT is co-sponsoring with the Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) - details and flier below.

Two of the panelists are co-authors on the recent report from PHR providing evidence of CIA medical experiments involving the torture of detainees in U.S. custody following September 2001. You'll find details about the report atwww.phrtorturepapers.org, and you can join the formal complaint requesting an investigation by the federal Office of Human Research Protection.

Prescribed by his Islamic faith to pray five times a day, Mazen Materieh often prostrates himself on one of the prayer rugs in the basement of his corner store. When he is done, he returns to his perch behind the counter, where he sells liquor, lottery tickets and pork skins — all forbidden by the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad.

Too often, news stories portray people of faith at extremes. They’re either totally righteous or totally hypocritical. In most cases, I think all of us fall somewhere in the middle. Brachear manages to highlight contradictions in what people believe — and what they practice — in a way that just seems, well, real.

Jun 21, 2010

On May 12, 2010, in Bloomington, USA, the Dalai Lama, joined by a panel of select scholars, officially launched the Common Ground project, which he and HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan had planned over the course of several years of personal conversations. The project is based on the book ‘Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism’, which was commissioned by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad. It is hoped, with the publication of this work that the spiritual relationship between the two traditions will flower in many ways, including the promotion of a new realm of scholarship and research. The participants on the panel included Ingrid Mattson, Eboo Patel, and Reza Shah-Kazemi.